


Ghost of the Past

by Jukingbox



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Character Development, Friendship, Gen, Hope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 00:20:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13282968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jukingbox/pseuds/Jukingbox
Summary: A requestEmpress Undyne looks for a way to deliver her people. Burdened by her anger and grief, she travels to another timeline hoping to find answers.In the process, she ends up finding herself





	Ghost of the Past

“It’s all ready, your Highness. “

Undyne looked at the machine; a conglomerated mess of wires and tubing linking two older machines together. One was Doctor Gaster’s brainchild, and the other a more recent (and somewhat defunct) venture taken by Sans. That skeleton never seemed to really apply himself, and though he was never one to lie about getting a job done, he was never one to make it look pretty. Bare minimum. Just like his performance at his old guard post.

She snarled at the mechanical mess. “Would it hurt your feelings if I said I don’t place much confidence in it?”

“Heh heh. Nope.”

Of course not.

“just tell me how this is going to go.”

“Well…” The way he sauntered so nonchalantly to the machine irked Undyne to no end. “I operate this end of the machine.” He pointed to the bulky supercomputer and its central monitor. “This is how we detect other timelines and anomalies.”

The Empress silently nodded.

Sans then pointed to the circular metallic pad and the sister computer that stood above it. “That right there is where you come in.”

“How are you gonna know which one to send me to? Which one will have the best answers?”

“Whichever one is still going.”

Something about that answer chilled her. “Still going? What do you mean by-“

“What I mean is, some just get cut off. Permanently. They just go black and don’t show up again.” Her head turned with his to the screen. Several windows were open, each tracking a different line. They were all broken into pieces at some odd interval.

Some of those windows only showed a blank space.

She almost didn’t want to ask, but it was coming out anyway. “And what about ours? Is ours stable? Is it gonna keep going?”

The Skeleton deliberated, maintaining eye contact with her. The way he kept that smile made her twitch and her skin began to feel cold under the cloak and armor.

“I make no guarantees.”

There was a pause, and a million thoughts came rushing into Undyne’s mind, each lobbying their own little idea to her consciousness. _It won’t work. How will you get back? What’s it going to be like? What if humans attack? How do you know this other timeline will help your people escape? What are you even looking for anymore?_

She boldly ignored all of them. Undyne was not one to hesitate.

“Let’s just get it over with.”

__________________

 

The house was rife with the rich smell of potatoes frying in an iron skillet. The skies had been clear all day in the 60 degree autumn weather, and so the sun shone through the windows and gleamed off the steam and light, hazy smoke coming from the kitchen. The door opened and shut, whipping some of that steam across the room. Toriel could hear the sound of a full backpack crashing against the couch over the sound of the sizzling oil in front of her, and almost on instinct, she called out to Frisk.

“How was your day, dear?”

“It was pretty good.”

“And the substitute?”

“Oh, Mrs. Campbell? She was nice. Kinda weird not having you teach me, though.”

Toriel giggled a bit, shaking her head as she set the hash browns onto a platter. “Oh, even I have to take a break every now and then. These human school districts just won’t let me get rid of my vacation days. Don’t you worry, I’ll be back next week.”

“Whatcha cooking?”

“Oh, I’m making us breakfast dinner, dear. I just hope I have enough for everyone”

Frisk stepped into the kitchen and saw a smorgasbord. Several plates stacked with French toast sat beside four bottles of syrup and a few shakers filled with cinnamon. A huge platter of hashbrowns sat next to another filled with steaming strips of bacon. Steam rose off a huge skillet of both scrambled and over easy style eggs. Popovers could be seen in the oven, and two jugs of orange juice sat on the counter beside the sink.

“…. I think you’ve got enough.”

“This three day Weekend is going to be wonderful, I just know it!”

The door opened again, this time smacking against the sop on the wall, which had already been terribly bent out of shape.

“Man, that smells great! Better than last time I cooked, anyway.”

“Undyne!”

“Oh hey, you little punk!” She crouched down and returned Frisk’s hug. “How’s school going?”

“Need help with your homework again?” Alphys’ smile persisted through her struggle with her overnight bag.

“Oh girls! You’re early!”

“Being late’s for wimps!” Undyne beamed. “Any word on the others?”

Toriel checker her phone as it’s constant vibrating couldn’t be ignored much longer. “Hold on, Asgore’s calling.”

Frisk couldn’t help but smile a bit as she overheard. It had been a little over two years since the barrier, and they were glad to see the progress Toriel and Asgore had been making. Getting them back together still felt like a pipe dream, but it was so much better hearing her talk to him so cordially. Gone now was the venom and the awkwardness. Voices were calmer, and now smiles were coming back. That was enough to erode away whatever school-fatigue Frisk had left.

She pocketed her phone before setting saran wrap over some of the completed dishes. “He’ll be here around five.  Sans and Papyrus are giving him a ride.”

“Sounds cool! Hey, mind of I help cook?” The question obviously wasn’t sincere.

The queen hunched over laughing. “Oh no dear, I’ll be fine, thank you!”

“Oh well, your loss! Hey Frisk!”

“Yeah?”

“Got the new SoulCalibur yet?”

“You bet!”

“I CALL TAKI!” Alphys scurried into Frisk’s room before either could race her.

Undyne chuckled and tussled Frisk’s hair. “Come on. I might need your help beating her."

______________

Even in the evening, the sun’s rays felt so wonderful, yet so undeserved. The thought of all her subjects never getting to know this, to feel this, brought an odd sense of guilt, like she wanted everyone to live here in an instant, yet she was the only one of them who got to feel this warmth, to see that light shine down upon the swaying trees, and that great ball of light hover over the mountain tops.

With enough luck, she would find out what was done here. She wouldn’t be alone in this anymore.

A little walk further down the mountain and past the airy pine forest brought her into a clearing.  Houses lay ahead in a snug suburb, and in the background, rising towers rose into the sky, glinting the sunlight with their numberless windows.

“Isn’t that just cute…” Undyne snarled to herself. “They get to have all this, feel this sun on them every day, breathe this fresh air, while we rot in some underground prison…”

Finding the human whose determination controlled this timeline was not going to be easy, but she couldn’t give up here. Alphys was languishing in that lab every day. Mettaton and Asgore were both gone, and Undyne could only do so much to comfort her when she was so busy with the throne and all its responsibilities. Her people were so hopeless, no matter how many times she drilled them and tried to get them revved up and prepared to war, to take back what was rightfully theirs. Nothing seemed to work as an incentive other than her mandatory declarations. Her hopes to alleviate that were all she had.

That is, until a familiar face caught her eye.

_Her._

That so-called _queen,_ that fool who let the human in. She was setting up tables on her quaint little porch behind her quaint little home in in this quaint little _human_ neighborhood. Must have found a way out and consorted with them. No doubt she loved them more than she loved monsters. Loves that little human brat more than she loved Asgore or Mettaton. Or Snowdrake or icecap for that matter

Every time that human’s face showed up in her mind, she could feel her teeth gritting.

Maybe it was because she could see them holding dishes and going out into the porch as the queen went back inside.

There could be some answers she could get from the human, but it didn’t cross her mind. Didn’t matter how they got here. Didn’t matter how they brought Toriel or anyone else here.

Those monsters would not go unavenged.

Her approach was slow as she crossed the backyard. Her walk became a jog and her jog became a run. A spear formed in her hand as she charged.

“NGGAAAAHH!”

“Undyne?!”

The Empress leaped and plunged her spear into the concrete, just inched from Frisk’s feeling feet.

“Undyne what are you doing?!”

“SHUT UP!”

Several more spears erupted from the ground, nearly skewering the child. Frisk’s mind, in a panic, could only think to run. Not why Undyne was suddenly hostile, not why she was wearing Asgore’s armor, just _run_.

“GET BACK HERE!”

She chased the human across the yard before closing the distance in one bound, landing on them and clasping a hand around their throat.

“U-Undyne!” The human called her name in choking gasps.

The Empress raised her spear.

Frisk’s little hands tried reaching up for her face. She had no voice as their breath eked out. “I-I, Undy-uck-p-please….”

“You die now…”

She plunged her spear downward….

… and something caught it.

Some _one…_

“Wha-?”

A blue hand was wrapped around her wrist to the point of warping her metal bracer. It yanked her off of Frisk in a single pull that felt like it would rip her arm from the socket. A fist came out of her periphery and slammed into her face over and over, and over again. Each blow felt like it would break her skull apart, and her eyes flashed in dull colors with each hit. She reached out to catch it, but it swatted her away before it yanked her to her feet. A knee smacked into her gut and almost made her throw up. Another fist to her belly and her eye went wide as every ounce of air in her lungs was punched out in one blow. The other hand let go, and she crumpled to the ground. She wasn’t down for long before she felt a weight pinning her, straddling her torso before another hand clasped itself around the collar of her breast plate. Something sharp was digging into the side of her neck and threatened to pierce it. She couldn’t see it or her assailant, as her eye was shut and tearing up.

The voice she heard froze her mind. It was her own.

“You touch them again and I swear, I will **_dust_** you, do you understand?!”

Frisk’s voice was quiet and raspy. “Undyne, who is that?!”

“Go inside.”

“But I-“

“Go inside _now._ I’ll handle this. Tell everyone I had to go out. Buy chips or something.”

“…okay.”

The sound of their feet pattering on the grass became distant and eventually ceased.

Her question to the intruder was as brief as it was gruff. “Who are you and why do you look like me.”

“I-“

“Answer now, and I won’t have to kill you.”

It was another timeline. There were only so many possibilities. “… I’m you.”

Undyne’s scowl only went deeper. “Someone like you could never be me.”

“Feeling’s mutual. Now get your spear off my throat.”

“Or wha-? **OOF!** ”

The Empress kicked her off and made a beeline for the porch door, but she didn’t get far. Undyne grabbed her hair and pulled her back, putting her in a headlock. “You’re gonna tell me what you’re doing here _right now.”_

“I’m trying to free my people.”

“What?!”

“You and that dumb queen and that brat are all living here nice and cozy while everyone else continues to live in that hell!”

“What are you talking about?! The barrier’s been gone for almost two years!”

That statement almost made the empress feel hope, but her anger was far louder. “Everyone but Mettaton and Asgore, huh? Or Snowdrake or-“

“Mettaton is doing a gig in L.A. Asgore is coming over in a few minutes. Snowdrake is performing at a standup club. Everyone is _fine!”_

The Empress didn’t answer. It all sounded too good to be true.

Undyne released the headlock and stood her doppelganger up. She looked over to the trees behind the yard. “I think we need to talk. Come with me.”

The Empress looked back at the house. Everything in her wanted to charge in there, but some sort of distilling sense bid her follow into the thicket.

They stopped just past the tree border, behind a few young pine saplings that obstructed any view of them from the house.

“Alright, start talking. How did you get here?”

“Sans sent me here.”

“Okay… how?”

"That 'Time Machine' Gaster built… he hooked it up to a few of the instruments we used to observe time distortions. I dunno how he did it, but it worked.”

“What were you hoping to accomplish?”

“We were looking for a way out… a timeline where we had escaped. Maybe we could learn something from it. Maybe there was a way to get more human souls faster, or a weakness in the barrier we hadn’t found or exploited. Maybe, if we could see into the future or some other timeline… we could save our own.”

Undyne paused. Those talks she and the others had with Frisk and Sans a while back were stirring in her memory. “Another timeline, huh?”

“Yes.”

“Well… you wanna know how we broke the barrier?”

Empress Undyne’s eye lit up, and she took a step closer. “Tell me.”

“Frisk did it.”

“…. Who?”

"The Human."

"Oh, you're giving them a name now, huh?"

“They told me a while ago. It wasn’t long after we got out. Sans was there too…” It wasn’t that the memory of those talks hurt. The knowledge felt so odd to live with, even if she knew Frisk loved her and all the others.

“That little freak deserves to die!”

**_SMACK_ **

The Empress recoiled, so shocked that she didn’t know whether or not to retaliate. Digesting that slap was more than enough for her mind to handle.

“Don’t you DARE say that again.”

“Tell me why I should believe you! Tell me why you slapped me even though I’m right!”

“Because they told me everything! Frisk and Sans told me and the others about resets and timelines and all that other junk, and you know what? I think I know your story.”

“Oh really?! Can you tell me why I should wanna spare that human’s life?! Can you tell me why they killed those monsters?!”

**“Because they were scared!!”**

“…”

“The Frisk you know and hate is the same Frisk I know.”

“Really now?!”

“Yes! They reset because they regretted what they did! They were scared, and they made mistakes when some monsters got too close. They told me themselves!”

“They’re lying to you…”

“What is _wrong_ with you?!” In more than one sense, Undyne was talking to herself. “Did you listen to them at all when you fought them? When they said they didn’t want to fight?”

“No.”

“Well neither did I…”

The scowl on the Empress; face began to melt as she saw her counterpart’s expression fading more and more into sadness and guilt. She knew herself. It took a lot to sway her anger.

“And so I… we chased them, didn’t we? We chased them, and they kept fleeing… because they were scared. Scared because, we were trying to kill them. Not punch them, not spar them, _kill them!_ Can’t you imagine that?! Can you imagine being a little kid, and someone’s chasing you and trying to _kill_ you?!”

The doppelganger resisted with all her might to ignore and drive past what her counterpart was saying. Her voice was convincing, but her face was not. “Quit trying to sway me with that stupid, emotional shtick.”

“No!” Undyne had already reconciled with Frisk, both in her burning house and a few months later on the surface, when everything came out. Still, residual guilt after-the-fact clung to her conscience. “We were trying to kill a little kid and they were scared! They were scared of everyone! The whole underground was after their blood!” That reminded Undyne of Something as her eye bolted to the house and back to her other self.  “Asgore’s decree….”

“He was right to enact it…”

“Do you think he wanted to do it?! Let’s say Frisk made it to him and they fought. You think he would enjoy killing them?”

She gave no answer.

“Well why don’t you look, huh?! Look!” her finger was pointing back at the house.

The Empress couldn’t believe her eyes. There he was in a pink Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts. His beard shone in the evening sun, and his smile beamed all the brighter.

“Asgore…”

“Keep looking.”

Toriel walked up to him and they hugged. They didn’t kiss, but they hugged, and they held that hug for a while, then broke it. Asgore’s face lit up like a Gyftmas tree as Frisk ran up to him and pounced on him, clasping onto his big, round belly as he returned their embrace. She couldn’t make out their words, but she knew his voice, loud, booming, and jolly, just as she always knew.

But he was dead… wasn’t he?

“It can't be…. “

“You wanna know something?”

“Wha-?”

“Let’s say Frisk never hurt anyone in your timeline. Let’s say you… we just got back home, take the armor off and just stew in humiliation for a minute or two before letting off some steam on the piano."

The Empress just kept listening. It was like watching a playback of all her memories. Hers were far more bitter, but the circumstances weren’t too different

“And let’s say, after a little while, Papyrus comes over… with the human who just beat us.”

“And?”

“And they say they want to be your friend.”

“No way.”

“Really?”

“No way in Hell I’d let that human be my friend. I’d refuse.”

“That’s exactly what I did.”

“Huh?!”

“I told them we’d never be friends.” She didn’t bother with other pronouns anymore. ‘I’ and ‘me’ and ‘my’ were really all that needed to be said. This wasn’t another person, after all, It was _her_. “… but then Papyrus challenged me to be friends with them, and, well, I’m not gonna pass up on a challenge, am I? So.. I try and be a polite host, I try and teach them how to cook and make friends with them, but I end up blowing it… I thought Frisk would hate me.” Her hands were wringing, and her eye looked downward.

“Then what?”

“I… I tried to fight them again. If we’re not friends, we could still be enemies, right? So I challenged them to a fight again, and I told them to land the first hit. You wanna know what happened?”

“What?”

“1 hp.”

“….”

“I told them to hit me with all their might, and all they could muster was 1hp. That’s it.”

“But-!”

“They didn’t want to hurt me **at all.** Do you understand? They weren’t lying when they told me they wanted to be my friend. I wasn’t lying when I said the only reason anyone may have died in the past was because Frisk was scared.”

The Empress wrestled with her thoughts. The human wasn’t what she thought it was.  All that anger she had was for nothing. The drills she enacted, the weapons and armor she had dressed everyone in, the continuation of the old decree. It was all she stood on. Now it lay in shambles, with her sitting destitute atop the pile.

She looked so clueless and helpless. “But… but what am I supposed to do? Did Sans ever tell you what happens to certain timelines after a while?”

“Yes.”

Her voice was getting desperate, and tears were beginning to cloud her eyelids. “What am I gonna do when I get back?! What do I tell everyone?”

“I don’t know…” her phone buzzed, and she glanced at it. Toriel was asking when she’d get back from the store. She put it away and resumed eye contact. “… but you know what?”

“What?”

“The underground has already been saved. It’s over.”

“But me and my people are still-!”

“No. _I_  was trapped. _Was_. That’s the key word. It’s over now, Frisk is the main constant here. They reset and save, and the past stays in the past… and I’m moving on from it.” She began her way back to the house

“What am I gonna do?! What if my timeline collapses?!”

For just a moment, Undyne turned back to her counterpart. “Then, nothing changes. Frisk took everyone here with them when they reset and got us out of the Underground. You are just me. A me that’s stuck in a dead version of the past. Soon enough, that might as well have not happened. I might as well have never met you.”

“ _Please!”_ The Empress cried out. Emotion had overcome her, and sobbing clouded her voice. “Th-there has to be something I can do!”

Compassion had become a lot easier to find for Undyne. “If your timeline doesn’t diosappear, you know what I’d do?” That ‘I’d’ meant a lot more than either realized.

“What?”

“I’d give people a chance.” And she ran back to the house.

The Empress wanted so badly to follow her. She wanted to talk to papyrus and Sans, and she wanted so, so badly to talk to Asgore, to hear him speak to her again, to comfort her, but something kept her in her tracks. She reached a hand out to her counterpart.

That’s when she noticed she could see through her hand.

‘Oh there you are!” Asgore hugged his former pupil close. “Did you get those snacks?”

“Nah, nothing looked too good. We ready to eat?”

“YOU BET!” Papyrus came out the porch door with his brother, the huge platter of bacon in hand.

Toriel called out as _pops_ and _booms_ echoed from the distance “Come now everyone! Let’s get to the table before we miss the fireworks!”

“Already got that covered!” Sans winked as he pulled out a few mortars and firecrackers from a bag over his shoulder.

Only a portion of the Empress’ mind dedicated itself to figuring out the situation. It was a Holiday of some sort, for sure. She was no stranger to fireworks, and, at least for a few seconds, the sight of some of them bursting behind the treeline above her and beyond the neighborhood in front of her, put a half stop to her tears. Their sparkling colors set against a darkening sky and the stars – goodness, the actual _stars_ – was perhaps the single most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

Frisk popped into view, and before they could say anything or get to the table, Undyne scooped them up and hugged them against her face. No one else knew why but the two of them.

Frisk whispered into her fin-like ear. “is everything okay with-?”

“Yeah…” She hugged them all the closer, fighting a small tear at the edge of her eye. “Everything’s okay.”

Maybe it was because everyone else was so quiet, or perhaps there was a lull in the fireworks, but the Empress heard those words.

Everything’s gonna be okay.

Her crying resumed, but, it followed another emotion entirely.

She looked down and saw the grass showing through her feet.

Then she looked back up as everyone sat at the table and ate. All laughing and telling jokes and telling stories, and being _happy_ together.

Maybe that’s what she had always missed.

Being _happy_.

Giving people a chance.

She knew what was about to happen to her, but it didn’t matter. Something about the situation’s sweetness was overpowering its bitterness, especially when she saw her doppelganger look back, only for just a second, and _smile_.

She returned that smile.

“What is it, Undyne?” asked Alphys.”Did you see something?”

She looked back again.

She was gone.

“No…”

The King’s concerned voice brought her eyes back up from the ground. “Is something bothering you?”

“Hmm? No, nothing’s bothering me…”

 

 

“Everything’s gonna be okay.”

 

** THE END **


End file.
